Will KY Senate abide by Supreme Court’s order to halt judge’s impeachment proceedings?

With state Senate impeachment proceedings scheduled to begin next week against a Fayette County judge, the chamber’s leaders have been mostly mum about whether they will abide by the Kentucky Supreme Court’s order to stop the effort.

The state’s highest court invalidated the impeachment of Fayette Circuit Judge Julie Muth Goodman on Monday, ruling that Goodman’s conduct was not impeachable, the General Assembly was not the proper venue for judicial sanctions and the impeachment petition was invalid because it was missing a notary’s signature.

The court also said in a 5-1 decision that continuing with the impeachment effort would be a “tyrannical” move that would violate the Separation of Powers Doctrine in the Kentucky Constitution.

But on Wednesday, Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, and spokespeople for Senate Republicans would not say directly if the body plans to proceed.

“The Senate is aware of the opinion issued by the Kentucky Supreme Court and is carefully reviewing its implications,” Stivers said in a news release.

Asked directly by the Herald-Leader if that meant the Senate would continue with impeachment hearings next week, Dustin Isaacs, deputy communications director for Senate Republicans, declined to answer. Angela Billings, director of communications for Senate Republicans, said only, “It’s scheduled.”

Stivers’ news release includes a schedule for the “pending” proceedings, which would begin April 16. The schedule includes three days for prosecutors from the House to present their case to a Senate committee, followed by three days of Goodman’s defense, before the case would advance to the full Senate beginning April 24.

Stivers also noted he was “encouraged” that the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission is considering whether Goodman’s conduct warrants action.

Goodman’s lawyers, as well as other detractors of the impeachment effort, have argued the JCC is the proper forum to weigh claims of judicial misconduct, and the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday revealed the commission was doing so in Goodman’s case.

Goodman’s impeachment petition was filed in January by former Kentucky lawmaker Killian Timoney, a Republican seeking to regain his Lexington-area seat. Timoney claimed Goodman had abused her office and ignored the law, citing as evidence six particular cases in her courtroom.

The House of Representatives voted 73-14 on March 20 to impeach Goodman. The vote was largely along party lines, with all but one Republican voting in favor, and all but one Democrat voting against.

The impeachment now heads to the Senate, which, if they move forward, will consider whether to convict and remove Goodman from office.

Here’s what could come next in the Goodman impeachment saga.

The Senate could ignore the Supreme Court

Before the House impeached her last month, Goodman asked the Franklin Circuit Court to stop the proceedings, arguing they violated her due process rights. The case rose through the appellate courts to the Supreme Court, which on Monday sided with Goodman.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd initially declined to intervene and stop the proceedings, saying it would violate separation of powers.

However, after the House impeached Goodman, Shepherd ruled the articles of impeachment were null and void, and that the Senate should not continue, though he noted the final authority would rest with the Kentucky Supreme Court.

At the time, Stivers said Shepherd has no “constitutional authority” to void the impeachment, and even so, his ruling had no influence on the Senate.

“It would be like me sending a resolution over (to Shepherd’s court) saying you can’t try a case when it is clear,” Stivers said. “But that is something that Judge Shepherd continually does.”

Lawmakers were adamant, despite Shepherd’s ruling, that the General Assembly has a constitutional right to impeach judges.

But Monday’s state Supreme Court ruling could change that.

Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, was one of seven senators chosen by the body’s leadership to serve on the impeachment committee. The committee includes two Democrats and five Republicans.

Chambers Armstrong told the Herald-Leader on Wednesday she expected the proceedings to stop after the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“My understanding is the Supreme Court has issued an order that the proceedings would violate the Kentucky Constitution if they went forward,” Chambers Armstrong said. “Given that the Supreme Court is the ultimate adjudicators of the law and constitution, that’s it. The proceedings shouldn’t move forward.”

Armstrong said she had not heard from her colleagues about the procedure since the order was issued. However, she said the committee could meet to formally dismiss the order.

She said if the Senate does continue, it would constitute a “constitutional crisis” — the same phrase Goodman’s lawyer used on Monday.

“Ignoring an order from the Kentucky Supreme Court would be a constitutional crisis,” she said. “I don’t have any reason that the legislature would head down that path. It is pretty clear that it would violate the constitution if we took it up.”

Sen. Brandon Storm, R-London, who would serve as the chair of the Senate committee, did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this story.

Judicial Conduct Commission could sanction Goodman

As Stivers noted in his statement, the Judicial Conduct Commission is considering whether Goodman’s conduct warrants action.

The commission can determine what — if any— punishment a judge should face, including a potential reprimand, suspension or removal from office.

Proceedings in the commission are mostly private. Laura Hendrix, executive secretary for the Judicial Conduct Commission, said she could not confirm if a complaint was filed against Goodman.

Republican lawmakers have repeatedly argued that they have a constitutional right to sanction a judge, but the Kentucky Supreme Court said in its Monday ruling that the commission was created for just that purpose.

The court wrote that the legislature’s impeachment effort ran counter to the Kentucky Constitution’s 1976 Judicial Article, which created the commission to address potential conduct.

Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney Kimberly Henderson Baird previously testified against Goodman and said she was planning to submit a complaint to the commission, but worried that she didn’t have enough evidence for the commission to remove Goodman from the bench.

“The ultimate goal is that she can no longer sit on the circuit court bench,” Baird told the committee.

Baird has not responded to repeated requests for comment.

This story was originally published April 8, 2026 at 2:27 PM.

Taylor Six

Lexington Herald-Leader

Taylor Six is the criminal justice reporter at the Herald-Leader. She was born and raised in Lexington attending Lafayette High School. She graduated from Eastern Kentucky University in 2018 with a degree in journalism. She previously worked as the government reporter for the Richmond Register.